Alternative Character Interpretation/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

*** Much the same, but with different trappings?<br />To put a point on it: depending on who you ask, the Technocracy is a genocidal [[Big Brother Is Watching|Thought Police]] bent on creating a stagnant world they have absolute control over, a bunch of [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Well-Intentioned Extremists]]s for whom [[Utopia Justifies the Means]], or [[Designated Villain|Designated Villains]]s who are the absolutely justified in their belief that supernatural influence over the Human Race is a quantifiable bad thing. By that same token, the Council of Nine either represents the last best hope for creativity, nobility and the realization of personal potential, or a bunch of selfish children who refuse to acknowledge the true implication of their abilities against the Greater Good. It's all heavily dependent on where on the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]] the World of Darkness lies. Unfortunately for the Traditions, this is the [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|World of Darkness.]]

** Everyone ''always'' ignores the Lunars. Most of the world sees them as raving, flea-bitten beastmen who squander their lives fighting each other over territory, mates, and bragging rights, when they aren't attempting to burn and destroy civilization to usher in total chaos. This is actually a deliberate ruse to appear less of a threat, so that the Dragonblooded and Sidereals don't try seriously hunting them down like they did the Solars. While many Lunars might fit the stereotypes if you squint real hard (and some even if you don't), for the most part they're a band of misunderstood heroes honestly trying to protect the world from itself and actually fighting to prevent Chaos. There are various factions devoted to protecting the world in the way they think most important, either by preserving (and improving) ancient knowledge, defending nature (and thus the Mother Earth Goddess) from ruination, patrolling the borders of the world to keep Chaos at bay, seeking to reinstate the Solar Exalted as kings of the world (a highly controversial idea among Lunars), or experimenting with isolated human civilizations in an attempt to come up with a viable alternative to the Realm's corrupt brand of civilization. In general, yes, the Lunar Exalted think the current order is corrupt and needs to go -- butgo—but they're not so stupid as to do that unless they've got something better to replace it, and they've given a lot of thought about ''how'' to do the replacing without destroying the world in the attempt.<br />In the first edition Lunars book, "raving, flea-bitten beastmen who squander their lives fighting each other over territory, mates, and bragging rights, when they aren't attempting to burn and destroy civilization to usher in total chaos" was exactly correct. It wasn't until the second edition that White Wolf fixed that.<br />In ''Exalted 2.0'', the whole Lunar "let's figure out a way to create a better society" thing is executed in practice by having individual Lunars go out and ''create test societies'' -- which—which frequently fail to produce positive results. Rather than try to fix the problems that they have caused through their social engineering (such as now-ancient grudges, entire societies on the brink of being press-ganged into demonic armies, and other such [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|dooms]]), Lunars often ''abandon'' said projects, for better or worse.

** The [[Our Titans Are Different|Primordials]]: Callous and vindictive psychopaths who treated their minions like dirt and the world and their creations like playthings they would occasionally break for fun? Or the victims of divine usurpers who painted them as far more malicious than they ever were, and now are so angry by this betrayal that they embrace this persona, and arranged it so that history repeats itself?<br />Right now, the answer looks like "It depends on the Primordial." Some were really that awful. Kimbery turns out not to have changed much by becoming a Yozi, and was just as much of a mood-swinging psychotic [[My Beloved Smother]] who alternated between loving the Lintha and her other creations and showering them with her favor and hating them for real or imagined slights against her and tormenting them back when she was a Primordial. The Dragon's Shadow was a treacherous [[Manipulative Bastard]] who is strongly implied to have intentionally orchestrated the Primordial War and whose primary change upon becoming the Ebon Dragon was actually being ''better off than he was as a Primordial'' -- he—he now embodies the dragon he was once the mere shadow of, and is one of the most powerful and influential of the Yozis. She Who Lives In Her Name destroyed 90% of Creation [[Ret-Gone|at the conceptual level]] in what amounted to a temper tantrum upon being defeated and imprisoned, and was against the existence of free will from the start -- Thestart—The Dragon's Shadow convinced the Divine Tyrant (now Malfeas) that free will was necessary, and he convinced She Who Lives In Her Name to allow its existence.

** The Neverborn: A bunch of sore losers [[Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum|trying to end an ancient war in a draw]]? Or a bunch of [[Woobie|Woobies]]s [[And I Must Scream|trying to end their eternal torment]] [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|the only way they know how]]? Or [[Jerkass Woobie|Jerkass Woobies]]s combining both?

** The Deathlords are typically portrayed as [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s who agreed to destroy Creation in exchange for the power to rule over its dying remains; the First and Forsaken Lion and Eye and Seven Despairs' saving of Creation from the Great Contagion is normally described as if it were an accident. [[Fridge Logic]], however, suggests an alternative interpretation -- whyinterpretation—why would they want Creation to be killed by someone else? Given that they are supposed to be two of the greatest geniuses who ever lived, it makes much more sense to assume that they saved the world ''deliberately''; even if they swore to destroy it, neither really has any actual reason to want to see it die, and plenty of reasons not to. They're all still brutal dictators and conquerors, and the only First Age Solars ''not'' to repent of the horrific atrocities they committed in life.

** The Imperium of Man: Are they a [[The Empire|vast, monolithic entity]] of [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|xenophobic]] [[Church Militant|fundamentalists]], or simply a race that has been forced to [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|resort to extreme measures]] in order to ensure their very survival in the [[Crapsack World|Grim and Dark]] future?

*** Are they merely [[Jerkass|jerkassesjerkass]]es seeking to preserve their own race at the expense of everyone else, or [[The Atoner|atoners]] doing whatever is necessary to stop the threat of Chaos and the Necrons. The last dying gasp of a decadent race, or the only hope against threats that the younger races do not fully comprehend.

* [[BattleTech]] as a whole (At least up until the Jihad) seems to have been an exercise in creating these, all depending on what faction you decide to side with. Except for a few unambiguous [[Kick the Dog|puppy-punters]] like [[The Caligula|Romano Liao]] or [[Royal Brat|Katherine ]][[Evil Prince|Steiner-Davion]], most characters can have several Interpretations.

** The Clans: [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Proud Warrior Race Guys]]s who deserve to lead Humanity, or [[Lawful Stupid]] [[Mary Sue|Mary Sues]]s with [[The Munchkin|way too much power]]?

[[Category:{{BASEPAGENAME}}Alternative Character Interpretation]]